Zimbabwe: Misuse of Responsibility to Protect Principle

Zimbabwe, at UN, Warns Against Misuse of Responsibility
to Protect Principle

New York, Sep 22 2011 -
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe warned today about the
misuse of the principle of responsibility to protect,
telling the General Assembly that it should not be deployed
arbitrarily or unfairly to attack an individual
country.

In an address
to the Assembly’s annual general debate, Mr. Mugabe said
the principle “should not be twisted to provide cover for
its premeditated abuse in violating the sacred international
principle of non-interference in the domestic affairs of
States because to do so amounts to an act of aggression and
destabilization of a sovereign State.”

UN Member States
adopted the principle – which aims to safeguard
populations from genocide, crimes against humanity, war
crimes and ethnic cleansing – at the World Summit in 2005.

It followed international concern about a series of
notorious failures to protect civilians from such crimes –
as in the 1994 Rwandan genocide or the massacre of thousands
of people at Srebrenica in 1995.

Mr. Mugabe said that
“to selectively and arbitrarily apply that principle [of
responsibility to protect] merely serves to undermine its
general acceptability,” and he said the Security
Council’s five permanent members bore a particularly high
responsibility to ensure that the principle is applied
appropriately.

The President said the situation in Libya,
where NATO had engaged in “blatant illegal, brutal and
callous” bombings, was an example of misuse.

“After
over 20,000 NATO bombing sorties that targeted Libyan towns,
including Tripoli, there is now unbelievable and most
disgraceful scramble by some NATO countries for Libyan oil,
indicating thereby that the real motive for their aggression
against Libya was to control and own its abundant fuel
resources.”

In March, the Security Council authorized UN
Member States to take “all necessary measures” to
protect civilians in Libya after forces supporting then
leader Muammar al-Qadhafi cracked down against a popular
uprising.

Mr. Mugabe added that “we in Africa are also
duly concerned about the activities of the International
Criminal Court (ICC), which seems to exist only for alleged
offenders of the developing world, the majority of them
Africans.

“The leaders of the powerful Western States
guilty of international crime, like [former United States
President George W.] Bush and [former United Kingdom Prime
Minister Tony] Blair, are routinely given the blind eye.
Such selective justice has eroded the credibility of the ICC
on the African continent.”

International Solidarity Movement On the 20th of March, during Ni’lin’s weekly Friday demonstration, Israeli occupation forces attacked protestors with about 20 rounds of tear gas canisters shot with the ‘venom’ tear gas launcher mounted on a military jeep ... More>>

Yemen stands on the brink of civil war amid deepening political tensions and an uptick in sectarian violence, United Nations Special Adviser Jamal Benomar warned today as he explained that only through dialogue could the country achieve a peaceful political transition. More>>

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is dispatching emergency life-saving supplies to communities in Tuvalu as part of its efforts to assist communities in the Pacific region that were affected by Tropical Cyclone Pam, with nutrition and hygiene kits arriving today. More>>